Disgrace Is Relative

Oscar De La Hoya knows a thing or two about disgrace, so perhaps it really is a disgrace.

“I don’t need belts,” said Cotto. “I have enough belts in my house and with $1.1 million I can buy any belt I want…”

After Cotto was stripped of his middleweight title by the WBC just days before his fight with Canelo Alvarez for refusing to pony up the big bucks the sanctioning body demanded, everyone it seems is choosing sides.

Not least among those side-choosers is Golden Boy Promotion’s Oscar De La Hoya.

Fresh off penning an embarrassing open letter to Floyd Mayweather which Playboy agreed to publish, De La Hoya has found another windmill at which to tilt.

Talking with BoxingScene.com, Oscar, who promotes Canelo, was upset at Cotto’s decision, to put it mildly.

“It’s a disgrace,” he said. “It’s a disgrace to the promotion. It’s a disgrace to the sport to do something like that. Every fighter dreams of fighting for the WBC middleweight championship and to do something like that is a disgrace.”

De La Hoya knows a thing or two about disgrace, so perhaps it really is a disgrace.

But it’s also possible that disgrace is relative.

Having heard or read De La Hoya’s most recent rant, Cotto explained that the WBC wanted a $300,000 sanctioning fee and another $800,000 step-aside money for Gennady Golovkin, who is the mandatory for whoever wins Saturday’s fight.

“Ask Oscar to give $1.1 million to the WBC,” said Cotto, “and then wait for an answer [from him]. It was $1.1 million. Is that fair? No, it’s not…they want four champions in every division just to earn the 3% of everybody. Then we have to pay for their mistakes. It’s not fair to me.

“Yesterday I talked to Mauricio. He had our answer before camp started. He waited until the last moment to put pressure on us. We call him yesterday. [Instead of] the $800,000 we have to pay Golovkin just to step aside, I had agreed to pay them $125,000 more…that was a reasonable number for me. He said that was not reasonable for them and he said ‘No…you are not going to be our champion anymore.’

“I don’t need belts. I have enough belts in my house and with $1.1 million I can buy any belt I want and I can be champion of whatever I want in my house. I don’t need a title. This fight sells by itself and everybody knows what they can expect from Saul and what kind of fight they can expect from Miguel. I kill myself and train my ass off every day with Freddie in LA and I know I have everything to beat Canelo.”

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The way fighters approach the belt thing is a double standard if you ask me. Most of these fighters had to win world championships from the same sanctioning bodies earlier in their careers and used them to build themselves to superstar status. Now they feel like they no longer need the titles (which is correct in some cases) to sell their fights so they dump on the sanctioning bodies.

I would like to see a fighter rise to the level of a superstar level of Miguel Cotto or Floyd Mayweather without ever once holding a world title. Only then would their argument of not needing belts wash.

Why Am I reading these comments on here(sigh)
How is Cotto a Hero? The guy refused to pay Golovkin the Step aside fee and refused to pay the WBC their fee. The WBC strips Cotto of the Belt and GGG’s team will have to go to court or some such to get there money.

Cotto, is he on a power trip? He allowed himself to sign a contract saying he would pay Golovkin a set amount of money so that he may fight Canelo. Now that he is fighting Canelo he refuses to pay the money.

If the governing bodies started to strip fighters for not defending their titles at the proper weight then I could support that. As it is, in this case it is nothing more than the greed and extortion that everyone has already stated.

I don’t blame Cotto for not paying up, why would he want to lose a large chunk off his pension just to keep a title that he will probably lose in the ring anyway. I know this sounds like I am having a dig at Cotto, but I’m not. He is and always has been one of my favourites, I just think he is spent and was never really a middleweight anyway, which he freely admits.

It is more the system that disgusts me, I know it is wishful thinking, but if catchweights for titles and step aside money was a thing of the past it would go some way to rehabilitate boxing. While I think about it, why does the WBC want step aside money? Surely any payment not to fight the mandatory challenger should be between the champion and the challenger. The only thing that the alphabodies need step aside from is the trough.

Thank you for the link to the Transitional Boxing Rankings! It finally took the lazy out of me, and bookmark the page, for consistant re-visit.
And thank you to Cotto, for remaining himself since day 1. He is a poised, lazer-focused, man thru n thru. Poetry in human form.
It is sad that the word Champion can dangle in the wind, and the “dreams” of these fighters can be strapped to their waste one minute, then left spinning un-harnessed, in the air on top of the scale, like its a candy bar one can buy or trash at any moment.

Well done Mr Cotto
The WBC is a corrupt, disgusting organization.
Did not one of the writers on this site write a glowing story and interview the chief crook of the WBC? Wonder what she thinks of this?

Well done Cotto.
The hypocrisy of the WBC to sanction the fight, then strip him if he doesnt pay what can only be described as blackmailing is astounding.
Enjoy your fight (win or lose) and enjoy your money

I always liked Miguel Cotto, now my respect for him is tenfold.
I guess Oscar will boot him out as the “Lineal” The Ring middleweight champion. But, who cares. The only legitimate ratings IMHO are the Transnational Boxing Rankings. http://www.tbrb.org/all-rankings/

Those sanctioning fees are no more than extortion from gangsters. These guys make the IBC look like choir boys. Thanks for taking a stand Miguel and hopefully other guys will as well. The proliferation of “world” and other championships, as well as day before weigh-ins have ruined boxing.